Off of this whole list, the only teams that didn't have bonified star goaltending would be
the Hawks and maybe the Wings although Osgood was pretty solid.

I think you missed my point! Its about the goalie cap hit and it was under the last CBA.

My Cheap goalies strategy is a post-lockout one (2005-2012). Its possible that a new CBA and a different goalie market (supply/demand) change everything. And i will be probably among the first to defends how valuable is an elite, even if high paid, goalie if it happen.

before the lockout when there was no cap hit, the $ a goalie was making didn't had an effect as important. And before 2000 the goalie market was totally different, there was a lot of difference between the elite and the average goalie.

So lets see the post lockout finalist starter cap hit when they won the cup.....

And even goalie like Thomas was not among the top 10 most paid goalie at the time they won the cup.

And this is only Stanley cup stats, regular season team success also show a negative correlation between the salary invested in goalies and a team success. (And yes Luongo cap hit wasn't that bad compared to some horrible goalie contract, it still not what a team should be looking for.)

Just ask yourselves: would Vancouver had more chance to win the cup in the past 3 years if they didnt had Luongo at all, and Schneider was their starter ? (meaning about a 5 333 333$ forward/defenseman taking the place of Luongo).

I am really curious to see how the new CBA will impact current players value. I will probably make a thread about it.